Soap bubbles, inflatable alter egos and crystal baubles all feature amongst the handful of artists representing Japan in the 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, currently showing at GOMA in Brisbane.
A rising star of contemporary Japanese art, Shinji Ohmaki has two standout works featured – Liminal Air, an immersive and highly tactile environment of clever artificial light and thousands of knotted white cords suspended at various heights (second image below); and the dramatic Memorial Rebirth, which comprises 50 bubble machines blowing 10,000 bubbles a minute into the sky (last image below). Like all his work, they are based on notions of infinity and the transience of all things, relating back to traditional Japanese aesthetics with motifs of repetition, emptiness, ephemerality and ambiguity.
One of the most photographed works in the show is PixCell-Elk#2, a 2.5 metre high taxidermied elk covered in glass, acrylic and crystal baubles of various sizes by Kohei Nawa (fourth image below, detail above), a sculptor who is primarily interested in the interaction between form and surface, and how we come to understand what we see.
Examining our relationships with material objects in the virtual/digital realm, PixCell-Elk#2 is part of Nawa’s ongoing ‘PixCell’ series whereby he creates sculptures based on images returned from web search engines. His objects (such as taxidermied animals) are sourced from online auction sites before being enveloped in skins of glass beads which resemble computer pixels as well as molecular structures, magnifying and distorting the object’s form in different parts to various degrees.
The most famous of the Japanese artists included is the superflat illustrator and sculpture Yoshitomo Nara, who has a specially commissioned joint collaboration with the Osaka-based architecture and design firm graf featured. Using reclaimed timbers and found materials, the YNG (Yoshitomo Nara Graf) space houses a selection of Nara’s iconic child-like drawings and objects (third image below).
Also of note is a multichannel video installation from animation and film artist Hiraki Sawa (in collaboration with sound artist Dale Berning) that was commissioned for APT (fifth image below), and an extensive retrospective of director, actor, author, comedian, artist and cult television personality Takeshi Kitano’s directorial film work (first image below).
By no means a broad look at what is happening in contemporary Japanese art, the five Japanese artists here (situated amongst a total of over 100 artists from Asian countries in APT6) are well worth devoting some time to if you are going to be in Brisbane between now until April 2010.
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Images: 1. Kohei Nawa / Japan b.1975 / PixCell-Elk#2 (detail) 2009 / Work created with the support of the Fondation d’enterprise Hermės / Courtesy the artist and SCAI, Tokyo / Photograph: Seiji Toyonaga. 2. Production still from Kantoku: Banzai! (Glory to the Filmmaker) 2007 / Director: Takeshi Kitano / 35mm, colour and black and white, Dolby Digital, 108 minutes, Japan, Japanese (English subtitles) / Image courtesy: Celluloid Dreams. 3.Shinji Ohmaki / Japan b. 1971 /Liminal Air – Descend – 2007 – 09 / Installation at: APT6 / Courtesy: The artist and Tokyo Gallery + BTAP. 4. YNG (Yoshitomo Nara and graf) / Y.N.G.M.S. (Y.N.G’s mobile studio) (detail) 2009 / Commissioned for APT6 and the Queensland Art Gallery Collection with assistance from Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo / Purchased 2009 with funds from the Bequest of Grace Davies and Nell Davies through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery. 5. Kohei Nawa / Japan b.1975 / PixCell-Elk#2 2009 / Work created with the support of the Fondation d’enterprise Hermės / Courtesy the artist and SCAI, Tokyo / Photograph: Seiji Toyonaga. 6. Hiraki Sawa / O 2009 / Commissioned for APT6 / Courtesy: The artist, Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo, and James Cohan Gallery, New York. 7. Shinji Ohmaki / Japan b. 1971 / Memorial rebirth 2008 / Installation at: APT6 / Courtesy: The artist and Tokyo Gallery + BTAP
What an amazing collection of work. Shinji Ohmaki’s installation is beautiful. I might have to make my way up to Brisvegas soon! Thanks for sharing.
Comment by catkin & teasel — December 24, 2009 @ 6:57 pmthis was just amazing, went and saw it when it was showing in brisbane – Australia.
just simply amazing
Comment by jess — May 9, 2010 @ 8:01 pmmindblowing
Comment by anjaan patraa — July 20, 2010 @ 9:40 pm